John Cashel Hoey concludes, by iden-
tifying Divernia Bononiensis, with the TahernicR Bononiensis, while he thinks
Toiirnehem must be identical with Nemtur, or' Emtor, and Enna he makes
synonymous with Enon.
tifying Divernia Bononiensis, with the TahernicR Bononiensis, while he thinks
Toiirnehem must be identical with Nemtur, or' Emtor, and Enna he makes
synonymous with Enon.
O'Hanlon - Lives of the Irish Saints - v3
Thiers, par M.
M.
A.
Dufour et Duvotenay, grave sur acier par
^ss gee " Monumentaledu De- Statistique
partementduPasdeCalais. " Publieepar la Commission des Antiquites Departement-
^=9 Portus Itius, or Witsand, has not yet supplanted the ancient Gessoriacum. In the early part of the Roman era, and until the end of the reign of Claudius, it was the accustomed point of transit, between Gaul and England, for the embarkation of the Romans. See a critique, in the Gentleman's Magazine, for June, 1857, on Sir Francis
456 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [March 17.
supposed Portus Itius'^^" and Portus Inferior ; a fifth road extended to Ter-
vanna and Arras the sixth ran to Taruanna while the seventh reached ;;
Saint Omer. ^^' Not unconscious of its difficulties, Mr. John Cashel Hoey approaches the etymology of Desvres, which in the Latin of the middle ages,^^^ is spoken of as Vivernia Bononiensis. -^'^ The name, Desvres, has evidently undergone some strange, yet traceable, variations and modifica- tions. ^^* Its first appearance, as a French word, is Desurennes. *^s This
Palgrave's England. "
''
History of Normandy and of
that conflict of consonants, which has re- sulted in the present high polish of Acade- mic French. I may mention one or two instances, to show how little violence I do to French philology in identifying the Diver- nia Bononiensis of the middle ages with the Tabernse of Boulogne. Saverne, in Lorraine, is well known to be the Taberme Triboroco- 7tini. It was known, in a semi-Germanic form, as Rlsas Tabern. Gradually the sibi- lant ss of the first word invaded the second ; and it has long settled down into one word, intheformofSaverne. TheTaberna:Rhc- nana;, on the other hand, retained the hard b instead of converting it into v, as inevitably happened in the south, and instead changed the T into Z, Rhein-Zabren. In ages which had no hesitation in changing the pure dental T into the sibilant dentals S or Z, it
willnotbeconsidered — thatitwas suiprising,
*°° The Reviewer already quoted shows, that Sir Francis Palgiave has identified Portus Itius with Wissan, now standing in- land, at a distance of about four miles from the Sael water. Froissart speaks of Wissant, as a large town, in 1346. The Reviewer refers, also, to an able article on this sub- ject, by Mr. George Long, in Dr. Smith's " Dictionary of Ancient Geography. " See vol. ii. , pp. 99, 100.
26t " Would so many roads," enquires Mr. John Cashel Hoey, "communicating with places of such military importance, have been concentrated by a race of such a centralizing talent as the Romans, any- where except at the site of a great city, or a
great camp ?
the
On the ancient maps, indeed, which lies between Desvres
countiy,
and Boulogne, along the Liane, is simply marked Castritm"
sometimes changed into D jHiredentalsound. Indeedofallthetrans- mutations of letters, those of d and t, and those of V and b, are notoriously the most common. The Irish d, says O'Donovan,
'^' See *' Notice historique sur la villa de
Desurene, Divernia, aujourd'hui Desvres. " ParM. d'Ordre. Boulogne,1811.
^3 There is the epitaph of a churchman, bom in the place, and which says on his be- half :—
Me Molinet pcperit Divernia Bono- niensis. "
A local historian, Baron d'Ordre, speaks of the place, as " Desurene, Divei-nia, au- jourd' hui Desvres. "
264 <(j)- jg j^ very curious fact," remarks
' never has such a hard sound as the English *
Mr. John Cashel Hoey, who reasons very "
' quently substituted for rt'. ' Again, it
should be remarked that in ancient Irish MSS. consonants of the same organ are very frequently substituted for each other, and that where the ancients usually wrote /, c, t, the moderns write b, q, d. ' Decline the Irishwordlad,father. ItbecomesEidiid, his father ; £i thdd, her father ; by nhdd, my father. We carry the tendency into English. The mistake is one from which certain parts of Ireland, as well as certain parts of France, are not exempt even to the present day ; and, in Munster, one may still
LillibuUero was written, the letter d occasionally used where the tongue intended t or th. Nor is this vagary of speech con- fined to the Irish. Why do the Welsli say Tafyd for David ? It is the most frequently
recurring of that systematic permutation of consonants, which is one of the chief difii- culties of the Cymric tongue. The Welsh d and t turn about and wheel about in their mysterious alphabet without the slightest scruple. In German, the convertibility of the same letters is also very marked. The (jerman says das, for that, danl; for thanks, durst, for thirst ; and again Teujel, lor devil, ianz, for dance, theil, for dial. "
^^"5 "II la nom de n'y pas 50 ans, que
ingeniously on etymological afhnities, that in England the Roman camps seem to have
"
Gaul the Taberna; is the name which gene-
nerally adhered to them. Lanigan says, and correctly, so far as I have been able to dis- cover, that there is no trace of a Roman station called Tabcrncc in England, while the afhx Chester is the most common in its topography. In England, it may be said the Romans encamped : in France, the Taberna; meant a more settled and familiar residence, as familiar as the Caserne of the Empire. It would be interesting to inquire whether as many cities in France do not de- rive their origin from these military stations, as England has of Chesters. But the student who attempts this task will l)e sure to find the Latin word almost def;\ced be-
yond power of recognition, by the etymolo-
maltreatment which it has sustained in
been always known as
Castra," while in
gical
dJ Again, in ancient writings, t is fre-
liear, as in the times when the ballad of ''
tlie other only
March 17. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 457
seems to have been derived, from Desvres sur Enna, or Desvres, upon the ancientFhiviusEnna^^^oftheRomans,andnowcalledtheLiane. This particular stream flows past Boulogne, giving its name to a little village, Enna,^^7 built near the forest. By derivation, however, only the first two
letters of the original word, Desvres, are left. How do they disappear, it may be asked, or why do they re-appear, in the modern form of the word ? What may have been its original name, also, is a matter for historic investiga- tion. About eight miles distant from Desvres, and towards the north, within the military circumscription, of which it is the centre, a river, called the Em, or Hem, flows by a village, Tournehem,^^^ having a great antiquity. This, Mr. Hoey thinks, may be identical with the Nemptor, or Emtor, of St. Patrick's Lives. In the ordinary geographical dictionaries, we find it recorded, that Julius Csesar slept at Tournehem, while on his way to embark for that well- known event, in his military career, the invasion of Britain. ^^s This town now contains a Roman arch, with the ruins of a Roman tower. From the latter circumstance, this village, likewise, derives its name, Tournehem, or, as it was written in Malbrancq's time, Tur-n-hem. The tower, in conjunction with the river, is thought to show tlie derivation of the word, at a glance. But, the exigencies of Irish verse, in St. Fiach's Hymn, itis said, simplycaused their trans- position. Now,regardingthecommutationsoflettersinFrench,theDictionary —of the Academy -7° and that of Bescherelle^? ' lay down this principle very plainly
that / is a letter, which requires a lingual and dental effort, to pronounce like
Desvres a prevalu sur celui de Desurenne
anne ct de Tournehem," Saint Omer, 1830. Both M. Collet and Pere Malbrancq, how- ever, overlook the obvious derivation of the word—though both note the name of the river, which flows through the town, and which M. Collet calls "la riviere de Hem ou de Saint Louis. "
-*9 M. H. Piers, in the "Memoires de la Societe des Antiquaires de la Morinie,"
"
Cesar apres s'etre empare des forteresses de la contree s"y rcndit de Therouanne, Sithieu et Tourne- hem, I'an 55 ou 56 avant I'ere vulgaire, pour subjuguer la Grande Bretagne. " In the same volume, there is an interesting paper, by M. Pigault de Beaupre, on the Castle of Tournehem, which, he says, was partially rebuiltbyBaldwinII. , CountofGuines,in 1 1 74, and it continued to be a principal residence of the Dukes of Burgundy, at so late a date as 1435. I^^t, the vastness an—d
solidity of the works, which he describes some of them subterranean roads, evidently usedfo—rcommunicationwithotherfortified
indicate their Roman cha- works clearly —
racter. Baldwin a prince far in advance of his age—seemstohaveattemptedtorevive Roman ideas, and to rebuild Roman works, wherever he found them within his domi- nions. The castle of Hames, near Calais, which he rebuilt, and which he ceded to the English, as part of the ransom for King John of France, was, also, as M. Pigault de Beau- pre shows, of Roman construction.
que cette ville avait toujours porte aupara-
—"
vant. " M. L. . Cousin, Memoires de
la
Societe des Antiquaires de la Morinie," vol. iv. , p. 239. JNI. Cousin's papers, on Mon- thulin and Tingry, in the Transactions of this Society, are in general accord, with what has been said about the ancient military im- portance of the whole district around Des- vres.
266 gy Malbranque, its Latin name has been so written.
^^7 That we may presume to identify St. Patrick's Enon, with this undoubtedly
Roman Enna, is thought warrantable, when such a similarity and coincidence of place and circumstance survive so many centuries.
Thus, the locality, Enon, has been inter- ""
Saint Omer, 1834, says,
preted River House," or River Lodge," Irom En7i "a habitation," and On, "a river. " See Bullet, at Eiin.
-^^ '*
Ce lieu existait lorsque les legions
romaines penetrerent dans la Morinie, I'an de Rome 697, ou 57 ans avant I'ere vulgaire, et consistait aiors en un chateau fort garni de tours, d'ou est venu, selon Malbrancq, la de- nomination de Tournehem, du latin a Ttirn- bus. Cesar s'empara de ce chateau et y fit quelque sejour pour I'avantage de sa cava- lerie. Environ deux siecles et demi apres, c'est ^ dire en 218, Septime-Severe, autre empereur remain, fit camper dans le voisi- nage de Tournehem (sur la montagne de Saint Louis) une partie de son armee destinee pour une expedition contre la Grande Bi'e-
=70 See
"
Dictionnaire de 1' Academic
Dictionnaire Na.
tagne, q—u'il effectua glorieusement la nieme Frangaise. " ""
"^^
annee. " P. Collet's Notice Historique See Bescherelle,
de Saint Omer, suivi de celles de Therou- tional," Piiris, 1857.
4S8 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [March 17.
d, its correlative, weaker and softer. With such a letter, it is frequently con- founded, not alone in the German dialects, but in the greater number of languages. In Latin, this letter t is frequently substituted for d : thus, attidit for adtitlit. Formerly, Latin writers had set^ apiit, qiiot, haiit, instead of sed, aptid, qitod, haud. ^T^ Some of our Irish writers had interpreted the word
Neimtur,
to mean "
Holy Tower," thus,
Neim "
holy,"
and
Tur,
" tower
;"
until the late Professor Eugene O'Curry concluded, when compiling his valu-
able Catalogue of those Irish Manuscripts, existing in the British Museum, and
after a minute examination of a Manuscript, which is supposed to be the
oldest copy of St. Fiech's Hymn in existence, that the word has been mis-
spelled,^73 and should really be written, Emtur. ^? '* Other Manuscript Lives
of St. Patrick have Emtor, Eptor,^75 Emptor and Empter. ''^ However, as
Mr. John Cashel Hoey observes, the n, was not merely inserted, as Mr.
O'Curry imagined, to fill up a hiatus in the line ; but, it was obviously a part of it, and a copulative, quite as common in Celtic words, as de is found in
modern French. Besides, it has precisely the same meaning. ^77 In addition, a modern writer of St. Patrick's Life has explained Nemthur, by Holy Tours,
i. e. , the city of Tours, in France. Thence, he concludes, also, that our Irish Apostlehadbeenanativeofthatc\\. y. ^^^ However,thisinferencecanhardly be reconciled with the supposition, that St. Patrick's family lived very near the sea, nor can it accord with some other important circumstances, which will be shown, in a subsequent part of this Life. ^^g The existence of such a town or village as Nemthor^^° is not believed, by Dr. Lanigan ; still, he thinks, it may be resolved, by a series of changes, into Nevthur, Nephthur, or Nepthur,^^' from Irish vocables. He supposes it to have been a province or territory, well known, at the time when St. Fiach's Hymn had been com- posed ; and, he proceeds to show, that it comprised an extensive tract, be-
"
Life of St. Patrick,'' chap, v. , vi. This is thought the more pro- bable, as his assumed relative, St. Martin, was Bishop of Tours. However, it cannot be made to agree, with the text of St. Patrick's Confession. That city, in our saint's time, was so respectable and cele- brated, that had the Irish Apostle been a native of it, nothing could have been more
^'^ The conversion of v into b is even
more common. We find a familiar illustra-
tion of this cliange, in the old Latin name
for Ireland. As almost every student knows,
our island was variously written, Ibemia,
Ivemia, Hibernia, Juvernia, and lernia.
However, the English word Tavern, which
is exactly derived from the Latin Tabcntce,
is a still more apposite illusU-ation, as re-
gards the present enquiry. The intermediate
vowel swayed in sound, with those conso-
nants, which enclosed it. As the primary
Latin t changed into the softer and feebler d,
and the b into v, the intermediate a lost its
full force. Mediaeval Latin melts it into an
7, in the word Divernia. Again, the modern easily expressed. Nor would there have
French form, Desvres, brings it back, to- wards its place, at the head of the alphabet. Nor does it run the whole vowel gamut, as from Ibernia to Juvernia.
been any necessity for adding the name of the district, such as Tabicrnia. Neither could such a city as Tours have been deno- minated viats. Besides, Tours was never
^" It is stated, that N is but a prefix comprised, in any part of Armorica ; nor
introduced, to fill a hiatus in the text, while Emtur is the proper verbal form. This word, then, means, not Holy Tower, but a
tower, belonging to some place or person, indicated by the word Em.
could it be referred to that province, for it lay at too great a distance from the sea.
^t^ " His- See Dr. Lanigan's Ecclesiastical
tory of Ireland," vol. i. , chap, iii. , sect, vi. ,
and nn. 55, 56, pp. 91, 92.
-^ is deemed to be for Colgan responsible,
a mistranslation of its meaning.
^^' When Jocelyn spells Nempthor or Emptlior, with /, in the " Sexta Vita S.
Patricii," cap. i. , xi. . Dr. Lanigan says he should have omitted the letter in.
'^^ It is said to be even so of our Breviaries.
spelled,
in some
-T= In one Manuscript, this is said to have been in Provence, France.
-76 See nn. 226, 227, 233, 234, in the First Chapter of this Life.
^^ " Ballynamuck, for example," says Mr. John Cashel Hoey, "means the town of, or on, the river Muck. Tulloch na Daly (whose swelling dimensions the Frencli afterwards curbed into the famous name of Tollendall) is a more apposite instance. "
"T^ See Lynch's
March 17. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 459
tween the Loire and Meuse, in ancient Gaul. Consequently, Boulogne lay within this territory, usually called Neustria, but frequently also known, as Neptricum,orNeptria. Wearetold,^^^thatlongafterSt. Fiach'sHymnhad been written, the name Neptria or Neustria became confined to a smaller part of this great province. ^^3 That Bannaue or Bonavem, St. Patrick's birthplace, was in the province of Nevtria,^^4 has been asserted by Probus. ^^5 According to these writers of the Third and Fourth Lives, however, Nemthor wasinTaburnia,andJocelynsays,thatNemthorwasnearTaburnia. This does not well accord, with Dr. Lanigan's theory, about Neustria, or Neptria. This ancient name, he states, was applied to the old Britain ; but, in course of time, and when the Normans began to invade various parts of north- western Gaul, the name Normannia was used indiscriminately for Neustria. ^^^ They were so identified, that, as one of them happened to be limited to a smaller extent of country, the other was likewise circumscribed ; so that, when writing in Latin, Neustria is the term applied to Normandy, by modern writers. 2^7 The circumstance of St. Patrick calling his country Britain is re-
garded as affording intrinsic evidence, respecting the antiquity of his Con-
fession ; for, the saint well knew the name of his own province, and he also
took into account, that it must have been known, by the people, to whom he
wrote, under a like name. After the denomination Neustria prevailed, that
of Britain fell into disuse. ^^^ However, in his erudite and ingenious Essay
on the birthplace of St. Patrick, Mr.
John Cashel Hoey concludes, by iden-
tifying Divernia Bononiensis, with the TahernicR Bononiensis, while he thinks
Toiirnehem must be identical with Nemtur, or' Emtor, and Enna he makes
synonymous with Enon. If it were necessary, he says, to push liis proofs a
step further, there is the district, called Le Wicquet, which is undoubtedly
derived from the " which be the vt'co Bona- Latin, Vicus,"^^9and, mightnaturally
vem Tabernice, of which the Confession speaks ; yet, the historian of Desvres,
Baron d'Ordre, already cited, disputes this derivation. He maintains, the word is Celtic, and that it comes from IVic, a Celtic term for "wood," like our word "wicket. " Both may be right, for Viciis may be a Latin form of the same word. ^9° We have thus fairly analysed some of the best inferential proofs, from topographic names occurring, for France, and especially for its northern parts, as having a presumed connexion with the birth and with the early childhood of our glorious national Apostle.
^^ By Rev. Dr. Lanigan. Jocelyn. "—" Ecclesiastical History of Ire- ^^3 Other names had been applied, for land," vol. i. , chap, iii. , sect, x. , and notes
various portions of it. See liadran Valesius loc. cit.
province
^^* This is one of the passages, which in- duced Colgan to dislike Probus. The Bol- landists blame him, for having used the word Nevtria. They say, he should have called it
Hadrian Valesius writes, Fag7im Pontiviiin vitus liber de vita S. Judoci vocat ; vocat et liber vetustissimus de vita B. Furscui abbatis ; et amboe vita; Haimonem ducem in eo pago sedem habuisse tradunt. " See
callsit "CadomumNeustriasocellum. "
^'^^ See Dr. "Ecclesiastical Lanigan's
History of Ireland," vol. i. , chap, iii. , sect, xv. , pp. 117, 1 1 8.
^^9 According to M. Jean Scoti, Lieu- tenant particulier de la Sennechaussee de
Boulogne.
^5° Among the names of villages, in this dis-
trict, of the history ofwhich Mr. Hoey could find no trace, one was called Erin, the place where Blessed Benedict Joseph Labre was
and not have made a of it, since it was only a town.
" Notitia at Pontiviis Galliarum,"
Nemthuria,
^ ^^7 Hadrian Valesius, at Normannia, In the Dedication of the " Geographia Sacra," speaking of Caen in Normandy, Bochart
28s "Why should Probus not make Ncv-
tria a province," asks Dr. Lanigan, " having just before mentioned the town Bannaue?
Was he to
was in the town of Nevtria? They re- spected, however, Probus as an author, and have defended him against an unwarrantable attack of Stanihurst. Some others, among whom Harris (Bishops, p. 6), have endea- voured to depreciate the authority of Pro- bus, who, in spite of their wish to support the fable of Nemthor in Great Britain, is vastly more respectable than their favourite
say,
that the town of Bamtaue
94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, pp. loi, 102. ^^ "
pagus.
460 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [March 17.
The opinion, that St. Patrick was a Scotchman, has been held, by many of our most respectable authorities, and it has nearly the unanimous assent of all the Scottish historians^^^ and antiquaries. ""^^ Various Chronicles and
Martyrologies have been quoted, by Dempster,^93 to prove, that St. Patrick had been born in Scotland. Among the chief writers, who are in favour of
this theory, may be named Ussher,^? ^ and Colgan. A special Dissertation, on the birthplace of St. Patrick, has been inserted, by the latter. ^95 Sir
James Ware, and his editor Walter Harris,^9^ the Bollandists,'97 Rev. Alban
Butler,298 Rev. James Wills,=99 Rev. Daniel Rock, D. D. ,3°° Rev. Dr. James Henthorn Todd,3°i Alfred Webb,3°2 as, also, various other writers, maintain
this view.
Special Treatises have been written, by the Rev. Duncan Mac-
3°4 and Rev. Laurence Canon 3°5 to establish Very Toole,
3°3
this claim for St. Patrick's nativity in Scotland.
nab,
J.
A.
Turner,
CertaincommentsuponSt. Fiech'sHymn,andwhich,forthefirsttime, had been published by Colgan, 3°^ state, that Nemthur was a city in Northern Britain. They call it Alcluid, or Alcluida y°^ and, the name Nempthur is
also
as *' " or " Tower. " 308 the translated, meaning heavenly holy However,
bom. TheCommissionersfortheTopography
of Gaul, as established under the authority of
the late Emperor of the French, A. D. 1858, in
addition to the topographical surveys and ex- cavations, which they have carried on, have
published an oro-hydrographical ^nap of Gaul, in four sheets ; a map of Coesar's cam- paigns, now out of print ; a map of Gaul under Cresar's proconsulate, in four sheets, like the first ; as also some parts of an archaeologi- cal Dictionary of Gaul. The Celtic Period contains forty-two quarto sheets, and forty engraved folio plates, giving a rcsiuiic of the archaeological history of each locality, the nameofwhichissetdown; amapofGaul, indicating the site of dolmeqs and megalithic monuments, as also that of inhabited caverns in pre-historic times ; a preliminary map of Gaul, referring to the fifth century B. C. ; and instructions for
correspondents
^5fi See Harris' Ware, vol.
i. ,
"Arch-
mission. They have also in contemplation
a map, showing the geographical distribution
of the Gallic tribes, and a Dictionary of Gallo- Roman archreology, from the reign of Augustus, to the period of the Frankish kings. The non- private publications of the Commission, and such as are not out of print, can be had, at the Libraire Militaire de Du- niaine,inParis. InanissueoftheAcademy,
"
Edinburgh, 1872,
vol. v. , part i. , No. x. , pp. 261 to 284, 4to.
A. D. M. Henri Gaidoz calls 1S73,
3°5 In an admirable
" Where was
special attention to the very interesting results, then
St. Patrick born ?
"
Paper,
read at the Catholic
reachedbytheCommission.
"
-9' See James Walsh's
Catholic Church of Scotland," chap, iii. ,
Academia,Manchester,1S76. Thelearned
author has kindly lent his Manuscript of this valuable Tract—yet unpublished—and it has been used with great advantage, in discussing the present question.
pp. 40, 41.
=9= See William F. Skene's
"
Celtic Scot-
land a of ancient
: History Alban,"
''
3°^ See his 3°7 See ibid.
n.
3='* Colgan has it, "Neamthur sive
— Crclestis turris
Neamptor, i. e. , appellatur. "
chap, i. , pp. 19, 20.
=9^ See " Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Sco-
torum," tomus ii. , lib. xv. , num. looi, p. 521.
"
I, p. 4.
Britannicarum Ecclesiarum An- tiquitates," cap. xvii. , pp. 426, 427.
"9'* See
of the Com-
^59 See "Lives of Illustrious and Distin- guished Irishmen," vol. i. , part i. First Period, pp. 85, 86.
3°° See his book, "Did the early Church
of Ireland acknowledge the Pope's Supre- macy? answered in a Letter to Lord John Manners. "
3°' See "St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland,"
chap, ii. , pp. 355 to 361.
3^- See "A Compendium of Irish Bio-
graphy," p. 430.
3^^ See his * ' Dissertation Archaeological
on the Birthplace of St. Patrick," read in
St. Margaret's School-room, at Airdee, on
the 25th of September, 1865. Duffy's, Dublin : 1866, 8vo.
3°-* See " An Inquiry as to the Birthplace of St. Patrick," read before the Society of
Scottish Antiquaries, 8th of January, 1872.
History of the
vol.
Trias
Scholia Veteris Scholiastcc,
ii. ,
Thaumaturga. "
Ibid. , n. 2, p. 6. The Fourth (cap. i. ) and the Seventh (lib. i. , cap. i. ) Life of our Appendix ad Acta S. Patricii, cap. ii. , pp. saint have the same interpretation. See pp.
"^5 See "Trias Thaumaturga. " Quinta
221 to 224. 35. "7-
bishops of Armagh," pp. 5, 6.
^' See "Acta Sanctorum," tomus ii. ,
xvii. Martii. De S. Patricio, Episcopo, Com- mentarius pra;vius, sect, ii. , pp. 518, 519.
^® See " Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and other Principal Saints," vol. iii. , March xvii.
Archasologia Scotica,"
March 17. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 461
writer adds, in another note, that St. Patrick and his family removed from Alc]uida,3°9 and they went, for the transaction of business, to Armorican Lethania, or Letha. 3'° This latter word, as we are informed, has nearly the same meaning as Armorica, being styled by the British Celts, Llydaw, i. e. , litoralis, or " upon the shore. " The First. s" Second^'^ and Third3^3 Lives of our saint have nothing to indicate the situation3'4 of Nemthor, and nothing whatever about Alcluida, or Alcluide ; while the Fourth Life brings his parents from Armorica,3's to the region of Strato-CIude, Anglicised, Strath- Clyde, where he was born. The Fifth Life has it, that Patrick's birth took place, among the Britons ; that he belonged to the village Bannaue, of the Tiburnian district, and of the province of Nentria. 3i^ The Sixth Life states, that he was born and brought up, in the village, called Taburnia, near the town of Nempthor. 317 Again, the Irish Tripartite Life has it, that St. Patrick'soriginwasfromtheBritonsofAlcuide. 3'3 Nemthurissaidtohave been the place of his birth. 3'9 This place, if not the other localities here alluded to, must be sought for in Scotland, to furnish the requisite evidence, that she may claim St. Patrick, as one of her many distinguished sons.
The neighbourhood of Glasgow has been generally accepted, as tlie probable spot, to be assigned for St. Patrick's birthplace. Here it is thought should be found that ancient North Britain city of Nemthur, otherwise called Alcluide. 32° Now Alcluaid or Ercluad has been translated3^^ "upon an
3°9 Dr. Rock has asserted, that the WTiter
of St. Fiech's Hymn and its Commentator
had assigned the Britisli city, Alcluilh, under the poetical name of Nemthur, as the birth-
3'9 Sae "Septima Vita S. Patricii," lib. i. , cap. i. , p. 117.
3^° According to the . Scholiast, on the Hymn, attributed to St.
^ss gee " Monumentaledu De- Statistique
partementduPasdeCalais. " Publieepar la Commission des Antiquites Departement-
^=9 Portus Itius, or Witsand, has not yet supplanted the ancient Gessoriacum. In the early part of the Roman era, and until the end of the reign of Claudius, it was the accustomed point of transit, between Gaul and England, for the embarkation of the Romans. See a critique, in the Gentleman's Magazine, for June, 1857, on Sir Francis
456 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [March 17.
supposed Portus Itius'^^" and Portus Inferior ; a fifth road extended to Ter-
vanna and Arras the sixth ran to Taruanna while the seventh reached ;;
Saint Omer. ^^' Not unconscious of its difficulties, Mr. John Cashel Hoey approaches the etymology of Desvres, which in the Latin of the middle ages,^^^ is spoken of as Vivernia Bononiensis. -^'^ The name, Desvres, has evidently undergone some strange, yet traceable, variations and modifica- tions. ^^* Its first appearance, as a French word, is Desurennes. *^s This
Palgrave's England. "
''
History of Normandy and of
that conflict of consonants, which has re- sulted in the present high polish of Acade- mic French. I may mention one or two instances, to show how little violence I do to French philology in identifying the Diver- nia Bononiensis of the middle ages with the Tabernse of Boulogne. Saverne, in Lorraine, is well known to be the Taberme Triboroco- 7tini. It was known, in a semi-Germanic form, as Rlsas Tabern. Gradually the sibi- lant ss of the first word invaded the second ; and it has long settled down into one word, intheformofSaverne. TheTaberna:Rhc- nana;, on the other hand, retained the hard b instead of converting it into v, as inevitably happened in the south, and instead changed the T into Z, Rhein-Zabren. In ages which had no hesitation in changing the pure dental T into the sibilant dentals S or Z, it
willnotbeconsidered — thatitwas suiprising,
*°° The Reviewer already quoted shows, that Sir Francis Palgiave has identified Portus Itius with Wissan, now standing in- land, at a distance of about four miles from the Sael water. Froissart speaks of Wissant, as a large town, in 1346. The Reviewer refers, also, to an able article on this sub- ject, by Mr. George Long, in Dr. Smith's " Dictionary of Ancient Geography. " See vol. ii. , pp. 99, 100.
26t " Would so many roads," enquires Mr. John Cashel Hoey, "communicating with places of such military importance, have been concentrated by a race of such a centralizing talent as the Romans, any- where except at the site of a great city, or a
great camp ?
the
On the ancient maps, indeed, which lies between Desvres
countiy,
and Boulogne, along the Liane, is simply marked Castritm"
sometimes changed into D jHiredentalsound. Indeedofallthetrans- mutations of letters, those of d and t, and those of V and b, are notoriously the most common. The Irish d, says O'Donovan,
'^' See *' Notice historique sur la villa de
Desurene, Divernia, aujourd'hui Desvres. " ParM. d'Ordre. Boulogne,1811.
^3 There is the epitaph of a churchman, bom in the place, and which says on his be- half :—
Me Molinet pcperit Divernia Bono- niensis. "
A local historian, Baron d'Ordre, speaks of the place, as " Desurene, Divei-nia, au- jourd' hui Desvres. "
264 <(j)- jg j^ very curious fact," remarks
' never has such a hard sound as the English *
Mr. John Cashel Hoey, who reasons very "
' quently substituted for rt'. ' Again, it
should be remarked that in ancient Irish MSS. consonants of the same organ are very frequently substituted for each other, and that where the ancients usually wrote /, c, t, the moderns write b, q, d. ' Decline the Irishwordlad,father. ItbecomesEidiid, his father ; £i thdd, her father ; by nhdd, my father. We carry the tendency into English. The mistake is one from which certain parts of Ireland, as well as certain parts of France, are not exempt even to the present day ; and, in Munster, one may still
LillibuUero was written, the letter d occasionally used where the tongue intended t or th. Nor is this vagary of speech con- fined to the Irish. Why do the Welsli say Tafyd for David ? It is the most frequently
recurring of that systematic permutation of consonants, which is one of the chief difii- culties of the Cymric tongue. The Welsh d and t turn about and wheel about in their mysterious alphabet without the slightest scruple. In German, the convertibility of the same letters is also very marked. The (jerman says das, for that, danl; for thanks, durst, for thirst ; and again Teujel, lor devil, ianz, for dance, theil, for dial. "
^^"5 "II la nom de n'y pas 50 ans, que
ingeniously on etymological afhnities, that in England the Roman camps seem to have
"
Gaul the Taberna; is the name which gene-
nerally adhered to them. Lanigan says, and correctly, so far as I have been able to dis- cover, that there is no trace of a Roman station called Tabcrncc in England, while the afhx Chester is the most common in its topography. In England, it may be said the Romans encamped : in France, the Taberna; meant a more settled and familiar residence, as familiar as the Caserne of the Empire. It would be interesting to inquire whether as many cities in France do not de- rive their origin from these military stations, as England has of Chesters. But the student who attempts this task will l)e sure to find the Latin word almost def;\ced be-
yond power of recognition, by the etymolo-
maltreatment which it has sustained in
been always known as
Castra," while in
gical
dJ Again, in ancient writings, t is fre-
liear, as in the times when the ballad of ''
tlie other only
March 17. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 457
seems to have been derived, from Desvres sur Enna, or Desvres, upon the ancientFhiviusEnna^^^oftheRomans,andnowcalledtheLiane. This particular stream flows past Boulogne, giving its name to a little village, Enna,^^7 built near the forest. By derivation, however, only the first two
letters of the original word, Desvres, are left. How do they disappear, it may be asked, or why do they re-appear, in the modern form of the word ? What may have been its original name, also, is a matter for historic investiga- tion. About eight miles distant from Desvres, and towards the north, within the military circumscription, of which it is the centre, a river, called the Em, or Hem, flows by a village, Tournehem,^^^ having a great antiquity. This, Mr. Hoey thinks, may be identical with the Nemptor, or Emtor, of St. Patrick's Lives. In the ordinary geographical dictionaries, we find it recorded, that Julius Csesar slept at Tournehem, while on his way to embark for that well- known event, in his military career, the invasion of Britain. ^^s This town now contains a Roman arch, with the ruins of a Roman tower. From the latter circumstance, this village, likewise, derives its name, Tournehem, or, as it was written in Malbrancq's time, Tur-n-hem. The tower, in conjunction with the river, is thought to show tlie derivation of the word, at a glance. But, the exigencies of Irish verse, in St. Fiach's Hymn, itis said, simplycaused their trans- position. Now,regardingthecommutationsoflettersinFrench,theDictionary —of the Academy -7° and that of Bescherelle^? ' lay down this principle very plainly
that / is a letter, which requires a lingual and dental effort, to pronounce like
Desvres a prevalu sur celui de Desurenne
anne ct de Tournehem," Saint Omer, 1830. Both M. Collet and Pere Malbrancq, how- ever, overlook the obvious derivation of the word—though both note the name of the river, which flows through the town, and which M. Collet calls "la riviere de Hem ou de Saint Louis. "
-*9 M. H. Piers, in the "Memoires de la Societe des Antiquaires de la Morinie,"
"
Cesar apres s'etre empare des forteresses de la contree s"y rcndit de Therouanne, Sithieu et Tourne- hem, I'an 55 ou 56 avant I'ere vulgaire, pour subjuguer la Grande Bretagne. " In the same volume, there is an interesting paper, by M. Pigault de Beaupre, on the Castle of Tournehem, which, he says, was partially rebuiltbyBaldwinII. , CountofGuines,in 1 1 74, and it continued to be a principal residence of the Dukes of Burgundy, at so late a date as 1435. I^^t, the vastness an—d
solidity of the works, which he describes some of them subterranean roads, evidently usedfo—rcommunicationwithotherfortified
indicate their Roman cha- works clearly —
racter. Baldwin a prince far in advance of his age—seemstohaveattemptedtorevive Roman ideas, and to rebuild Roman works, wherever he found them within his domi- nions. The castle of Hames, near Calais, which he rebuilt, and which he ceded to the English, as part of the ransom for King John of France, was, also, as M. Pigault de Beau- pre shows, of Roman construction.
que cette ville avait toujours porte aupara-
—"
vant. " M. L. . Cousin, Memoires de
la
Societe des Antiquaires de la Morinie," vol. iv. , p. 239. JNI. Cousin's papers, on Mon- thulin and Tingry, in the Transactions of this Society, are in general accord, with what has been said about the ancient military im- portance of the whole district around Des- vres.
266 gy Malbranque, its Latin name has been so written.
^^7 That we may presume to identify St. Patrick's Enon, with this undoubtedly
Roman Enna, is thought warrantable, when such a similarity and coincidence of place and circumstance survive so many centuries.
Thus, the locality, Enon, has been inter- ""
Saint Omer, 1834, says,
preted River House," or River Lodge," Irom En7i "a habitation," and On, "a river. " See Bullet, at Eiin.
-^^ '*
Ce lieu existait lorsque les legions
romaines penetrerent dans la Morinie, I'an de Rome 697, ou 57 ans avant I'ere vulgaire, et consistait aiors en un chateau fort garni de tours, d'ou est venu, selon Malbrancq, la de- nomination de Tournehem, du latin a Ttirn- bus. Cesar s'empara de ce chateau et y fit quelque sejour pour I'avantage de sa cava- lerie. Environ deux siecles et demi apres, c'est ^ dire en 218, Septime-Severe, autre empereur remain, fit camper dans le voisi- nage de Tournehem (sur la montagne de Saint Louis) une partie de son armee destinee pour une expedition contre la Grande Bi'e-
=70 See
"
Dictionnaire de 1' Academic
Dictionnaire Na.
tagne, q—u'il effectua glorieusement la nieme Frangaise. " ""
"^^
annee. " P. Collet's Notice Historique See Bescherelle,
de Saint Omer, suivi de celles de Therou- tional," Piiris, 1857.
4S8 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [March 17.
d, its correlative, weaker and softer. With such a letter, it is frequently con- founded, not alone in the German dialects, but in the greater number of languages. In Latin, this letter t is frequently substituted for d : thus, attidit for adtitlit. Formerly, Latin writers had set^ apiit, qiiot, haiit, instead of sed, aptid, qitod, haud. ^T^ Some of our Irish writers had interpreted the word
Neimtur,
to mean "
Holy Tower," thus,
Neim "
holy,"
and
Tur,
" tower
;"
until the late Professor Eugene O'Curry concluded, when compiling his valu-
able Catalogue of those Irish Manuscripts, existing in the British Museum, and
after a minute examination of a Manuscript, which is supposed to be the
oldest copy of St. Fiech's Hymn in existence, that the word has been mis-
spelled,^73 and should really be written, Emtur. ^? '* Other Manuscript Lives
of St. Patrick have Emtor, Eptor,^75 Emptor and Empter. ''^ However, as
Mr. John Cashel Hoey observes, the n, was not merely inserted, as Mr.
O'Curry imagined, to fill up a hiatus in the line ; but, it was obviously a part of it, and a copulative, quite as common in Celtic words, as de is found in
modern French. Besides, it has precisely the same meaning. ^77 In addition, a modern writer of St. Patrick's Life has explained Nemthur, by Holy Tours,
i. e. , the city of Tours, in France. Thence, he concludes, also, that our Irish Apostlehadbeenanativeofthatc\\. y. ^^^ However,thisinferencecanhardly be reconciled with the supposition, that St. Patrick's family lived very near the sea, nor can it accord with some other important circumstances, which will be shown, in a subsequent part of this Life. ^^g The existence of such a town or village as Nemthor^^° is not believed, by Dr. Lanigan ; still, he thinks, it may be resolved, by a series of changes, into Nevthur, Nephthur, or Nepthur,^^' from Irish vocables. He supposes it to have been a province or territory, well known, at the time when St. Fiach's Hymn had been com- posed ; and, he proceeds to show, that it comprised an extensive tract, be-
"
Life of St. Patrick,'' chap, v. , vi. This is thought the more pro- bable, as his assumed relative, St. Martin, was Bishop of Tours. However, it cannot be made to agree, with the text of St. Patrick's Confession. That city, in our saint's time, was so respectable and cele- brated, that had the Irish Apostle been a native of it, nothing could have been more
^'^ The conversion of v into b is even
more common. We find a familiar illustra-
tion of this cliange, in the old Latin name
for Ireland. As almost every student knows,
our island was variously written, Ibemia,
Ivemia, Hibernia, Juvernia, and lernia.
However, the English word Tavern, which
is exactly derived from the Latin Tabcntce,
is a still more apposite illusU-ation, as re-
gards the present enquiry. The intermediate
vowel swayed in sound, with those conso-
nants, which enclosed it. As the primary
Latin t changed into the softer and feebler d,
and the b into v, the intermediate a lost its
full force. Mediaeval Latin melts it into an
7, in the word Divernia. Again, the modern easily expressed. Nor would there have
French form, Desvres, brings it back, to- wards its place, at the head of the alphabet. Nor does it run the whole vowel gamut, as from Ibernia to Juvernia.
been any necessity for adding the name of the district, such as Tabicrnia. Neither could such a city as Tours have been deno- minated viats. Besides, Tours was never
^" It is stated, that N is but a prefix comprised, in any part of Armorica ; nor
introduced, to fill a hiatus in the text, while Emtur is the proper verbal form. This word, then, means, not Holy Tower, but a
tower, belonging to some place or person, indicated by the word Em.
could it be referred to that province, for it lay at too great a distance from the sea.
^t^ " His- See Dr. Lanigan's Ecclesiastical
tory of Ireland," vol. i. , chap, iii. , sect, vi. ,
and nn. 55, 56, pp. 91, 92.
-^ is deemed to be for Colgan responsible,
a mistranslation of its meaning.
^^' When Jocelyn spells Nempthor or Emptlior, with /, in the " Sexta Vita S.
Patricii," cap. i. , xi. . Dr. Lanigan says he should have omitted the letter in.
'^^ It is said to be even so of our Breviaries.
spelled,
in some
-T= In one Manuscript, this is said to have been in Provence, France.
-76 See nn. 226, 227, 233, 234, in the First Chapter of this Life.
^^ " Ballynamuck, for example," says Mr. John Cashel Hoey, "means the town of, or on, the river Muck. Tulloch na Daly (whose swelling dimensions the Frencli afterwards curbed into the famous name of Tollendall) is a more apposite instance. "
"T^ See Lynch's
March 17. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 459
tween the Loire and Meuse, in ancient Gaul. Consequently, Boulogne lay within this territory, usually called Neustria, but frequently also known, as Neptricum,orNeptria. Wearetold,^^^thatlongafterSt. Fiach'sHymnhad been written, the name Neptria or Neustria became confined to a smaller part of this great province. ^^3 That Bannaue or Bonavem, St. Patrick's birthplace, was in the province of Nevtria,^^4 has been asserted by Probus. ^^5 According to these writers of the Third and Fourth Lives, however, Nemthor wasinTaburnia,andJocelynsays,thatNemthorwasnearTaburnia. This does not well accord, with Dr. Lanigan's theory, about Neustria, or Neptria. This ancient name, he states, was applied to the old Britain ; but, in course of time, and when the Normans began to invade various parts of north- western Gaul, the name Normannia was used indiscriminately for Neustria. ^^^ They were so identified, that, as one of them happened to be limited to a smaller extent of country, the other was likewise circumscribed ; so that, when writing in Latin, Neustria is the term applied to Normandy, by modern writers. 2^7 The circumstance of St. Patrick calling his country Britain is re-
garded as affording intrinsic evidence, respecting the antiquity of his Con-
fession ; for, the saint well knew the name of his own province, and he also
took into account, that it must have been known, by the people, to whom he
wrote, under a like name. After the denomination Neustria prevailed, that
of Britain fell into disuse. ^^^ However, in his erudite and ingenious Essay
on the birthplace of St. Patrick, Mr.
John Cashel Hoey concludes, by iden-
tifying Divernia Bononiensis, with the TahernicR Bononiensis, while he thinks
Toiirnehem must be identical with Nemtur, or' Emtor, and Enna he makes
synonymous with Enon. If it were necessary, he says, to push liis proofs a
step further, there is the district, called Le Wicquet, which is undoubtedly
derived from the " which be the vt'co Bona- Latin, Vicus,"^^9and, mightnaturally
vem Tabernice, of which the Confession speaks ; yet, the historian of Desvres,
Baron d'Ordre, already cited, disputes this derivation. He maintains, the word is Celtic, and that it comes from IVic, a Celtic term for "wood," like our word "wicket. " Both may be right, for Viciis may be a Latin form of the same word. ^9° We have thus fairly analysed some of the best inferential proofs, from topographic names occurring, for France, and especially for its northern parts, as having a presumed connexion with the birth and with the early childhood of our glorious national Apostle.
^^ By Rev. Dr. Lanigan. Jocelyn. "—" Ecclesiastical History of Ire- ^^3 Other names had been applied, for land," vol. i. , chap, iii. , sect, x. , and notes
various portions of it. See liadran Valesius loc. cit.
province
^^* This is one of the passages, which in- duced Colgan to dislike Probus. The Bol- landists blame him, for having used the word Nevtria. They say, he should have called it
Hadrian Valesius writes, Fag7im Pontiviiin vitus liber de vita S. Judoci vocat ; vocat et liber vetustissimus de vita B. Furscui abbatis ; et amboe vita; Haimonem ducem in eo pago sedem habuisse tradunt. " See
callsit "CadomumNeustriasocellum. "
^'^^ See Dr. "Ecclesiastical Lanigan's
History of Ireland," vol. i. , chap, iii. , sect, xv. , pp. 117, 1 1 8.
^^9 According to M. Jean Scoti, Lieu- tenant particulier de la Sennechaussee de
Boulogne.
^5° Among the names of villages, in this dis-
trict, of the history ofwhich Mr. Hoey could find no trace, one was called Erin, the place where Blessed Benedict Joseph Labre was
and not have made a of it, since it was only a town.
" Notitia at Pontiviis Galliarum,"
Nemthuria,
^ ^^7 Hadrian Valesius, at Normannia, In the Dedication of the " Geographia Sacra," speaking of Caen in Normandy, Bochart
28s "Why should Probus not make Ncv-
tria a province," asks Dr. Lanigan, " having just before mentioned the town Bannaue?
Was he to
was in the town of Nevtria? They re- spected, however, Probus as an author, and have defended him against an unwarrantable attack of Stanihurst. Some others, among whom Harris (Bishops, p. 6), have endea- voured to depreciate the authority of Pro- bus, who, in spite of their wish to support the fable of Nemthor in Great Britain, is vastly more respectable than their favourite
say,
that the town of Bamtaue
94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, pp. loi, 102. ^^ "
pagus.
460 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [March 17.
The opinion, that St. Patrick was a Scotchman, has been held, by many of our most respectable authorities, and it has nearly the unanimous assent of all the Scottish historians^^^ and antiquaries. ""^^ Various Chronicles and
Martyrologies have been quoted, by Dempster,^93 to prove, that St. Patrick had been born in Scotland. Among the chief writers, who are in favour of
this theory, may be named Ussher,^? ^ and Colgan. A special Dissertation, on the birthplace of St. Patrick, has been inserted, by the latter. ^95 Sir
James Ware, and his editor Walter Harris,^9^ the Bollandists,'97 Rev. Alban
Butler,298 Rev. James Wills,=99 Rev. Daniel Rock, D. D. ,3°° Rev. Dr. James Henthorn Todd,3°i Alfred Webb,3°2 as, also, various other writers, maintain
this view.
Special Treatises have been written, by the Rev. Duncan Mac-
3°4 and Rev. Laurence Canon 3°5 to establish Very Toole,
3°3
this claim for St. Patrick's nativity in Scotland.
nab,
J.
A.
Turner,
CertaincommentsuponSt. Fiech'sHymn,andwhich,forthefirsttime, had been published by Colgan, 3°^ state, that Nemthur was a city in Northern Britain. They call it Alcluid, or Alcluida y°^ and, the name Nempthur is
also
as *' " or " Tower. " 308 the translated, meaning heavenly holy However,
bom. TheCommissionersfortheTopography
of Gaul, as established under the authority of
the late Emperor of the French, A. D. 1858, in
addition to the topographical surveys and ex- cavations, which they have carried on, have
published an oro-hydrographical ^nap of Gaul, in four sheets ; a map of Coesar's cam- paigns, now out of print ; a map of Gaul under Cresar's proconsulate, in four sheets, like the first ; as also some parts of an archaeologi- cal Dictionary of Gaul. The Celtic Period contains forty-two quarto sheets, and forty engraved folio plates, giving a rcsiuiic of the archaeological history of each locality, the nameofwhichissetdown; amapofGaul, indicating the site of dolmeqs and megalithic monuments, as also that of inhabited caverns in pre-historic times ; a preliminary map of Gaul, referring to the fifth century B. C. ; and instructions for
correspondents
^5fi See Harris' Ware, vol.
i. ,
"Arch-
mission. They have also in contemplation
a map, showing the geographical distribution
of the Gallic tribes, and a Dictionary of Gallo- Roman archreology, from the reign of Augustus, to the period of the Frankish kings. The non- private publications of the Commission, and such as are not out of print, can be had, at the Libraire Militaire de Du- niaine,inParis. InanissueoftheAcademy,
"
Edinburgh, 1872,
vol. v. , part i. , No. x. , pp. 261 to 284, 4to.
A. D. M. Henri Gaidoz calls 1S73,
3°5 In an admirable
" Where was
special attention to the very interesting results, then
St. Patrick born ?
"
Paper,
read at the Catholic
reachedbytheCommission.
"
-9' See James Walsh's
Catholic Church of Scotland," chap, iii. ,
Academia,Manchester,1S76. Thelearned
author has kindly lent his Manuscript of this valuable Tract—yet unpublished—and it has been used with great advantage, in discussing the present question.
pp. 40, 41.
=9= See William F. Skene's
"
Celtic Scot-
land a of ancient
: History Alban,"
''
3°^ See his 3°7 See ibid.
n.
3='* Colgan has it, "Neamthur sive
— Crclestis turris
Neamptor, i. e. , appellatur. "
chap, i. , pp. 19, 20.
=9^ See " Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Sco-
torum," tomus ii. , lib. xv. , num. looi, p. 521.
"
I, p. 4.
Britannicarum Ecclesiarum An- tiquitates," cap. xvii. , pp. 426, 427.
"9'* See
of the Com-
^59 See "Lives of Illustrious and Distin- guished Irishmen," vol. i. , part i. First Period, pp. 85, 86.
3°° See his book, "Did the early Church
of Ireland acknowledge the Pope's Supre- macy? answered in a Letter to Lord John Manners. "
3°' See "St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland,"
chap, ii. , pp. 355 to 361.
3^- See "A Compendium of Irish Bio-
graphy," p. 430.
3^^ See his * ' Dissertation Archaeological
on the Birthplace of St. Patrick," read in
St. Margaret's School-room, at Airdee, on
the 25th of September, 1865. Duffy's, Dublin : 1866, 8vo.
3°-* See " An Inquiry as to the Birthplace of St. Patrick," read before the Society of
Scottish Antiquaries, 8th of January, 1872.
History of the
vol.
Trias
Scholia Veteris Scholiastcc,
ii. ,
Thaumaturga. "
Ibid. , n. 2, p. 6. The Fourth (cap. i. ) and the Seventh (lib. i. , cap. i. ) Life of our Appendix ad Acta S. Patricii, cap. ii. , pp. saint have the same interpretation. See pp.
"^5 See "Trias Thaumaturga. " Quinta
221 to 224. 35. "7-
bishops of Armagh," pp. 5, 6.
^' See "Acta Sanctorum," tomus ii. ,
xvii. Martii. De S. Patricio, Episcopo, Com- mentarius pra;vius, sect, ii. , pp. 518, 519.
^® See " Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and other Principal Saints," vol. iii. , March xvii.
Archasologia Scotica,"
March 17. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 461
writer adds, in another note, that St. Patrick and his family removed from Alc]uida,3°9 and they went, for the transaction of business, to Armorican Lethania, or Letha. 3'° This latter word, as we are informed, has nearly the same meaning as Armorica, being styled by the British Celts, Llydaw, i. e. , litoralis, or " upon the shore. " The First. s" Second^'^ and Third3^3 Lives of our saint have nothing to indicate the situation3'4 of Nemthor, and nothing whatever about Alcluida, or Alcluide ; while the Fourth Life brings his parents from Armorica,3's to the region of Strato-CIude, Anglicised, Strath- Clyde, where he was born. The Fifth Life has it, that Patrick's birth took place, among the Britons ; that he belonged to the village Bannaue, of the Tiburnian district, and of the province of Nentria. 3i^ The Sixth Life states, that he was born and brought up, in the village, called Taburnia, near the town of Nempthor. 317 Again, the Irish Tripartite Life has it, that St. Patrick'soriginwasfromtheBritonsofAlcuide. 3'3 Nemthurissaidtohave been the place of his birth. 3'9 This place, if not the other localities here alluded to, must be sought for in Scotland, to furnish the requisite evidence, that she may claim St. Patrick, as one of her many distinguished sons.
The neighbourhood of Glasgow has been generally accepted, as tlie probable spot, to be assigned for St. Patrick's birthplace. Here it is thought should be found that ancient North Britain city of Nemthur, otherwise called Alcluide. 32° Now Alcluaid or Ercluad has been translated3^^ "upon an
3°9 Dr. Rock has asserted, that the WTiter
of St. Fiech's Hymn and its Commentator
had assigned the Britisli city, Alcluilh, under the poetical name of Nemthur, as the birth-
3'9 Sae "Septima Vita S. Patricii," lib. i. , cap. i. , p. 117.
3^° According to the . Scholiast, on the Hymn, attributed to St.
